Consumer acceptance of laundry products is determined not only by the performance achieved with these products but the aesthetics associated therewith. The perfume systems are therefore an important aspect of the successful formulation of such commercial products.
What perfume system to use for a given product is a matter of careful consideration by skilled perfumers. While a wide array of chemicals and ingredients are available to perfumers, considerations such as availability, cost, and compatibility with other components in the compositions limit the practical options. Thus, there continues to be a need for low-cost, compatible perfume materials useful for laundry compositions.
In the rinse cycle of the laundry process, a substantial amount of perfume in the fabric softener composition can be lost when the rinse water is spun out (in a washing machine), or wrung out (during hand washing), even if the perfume is encapsulated or included in a carrier.
Furthermore, due to the high energy input and large air flow in the drying process used in the typical automatic laundry dryers, a large part of most perfumes provided by fabric softener products is lost from the dryer vent. Perfume can be lost even when the fabrics are line dried. Concurrent with effort to reduce the environmental impact of fabric softener compositions, it is desirable to formulate efficient, enduring fabric softener perfume compositions that remain on fabric for aesthetic benefit, and are not lost, or wasted, without benefiting the laundered items.
The present invention provides improved compositions with less environmental impact due to using a combination of biodegradable softener and efficient perfumes in rinse-added fabric softening compositions while, surprisingly, also providing improved longevity of perfumes on the laundered clothes, by utilizing enduring perfume compositions.
It has been discovered that esters of certain nonionic and anionic non-allylic perfume alcohols are particularly well suited for fabric softening compositions. In particular, it has been discovered that depending on the acid group utilized and/or fabric softening compositions into which these are incorporated, esters of non-allylic perfume alcohols will gradually hydrolyze to release the non-allylic alcohol perfume. In addition, slowly hydrolyzable esters of non-allylic perfume alcohols provide release of the perfume over a longer period of time than by the use of the perfume itself in the biodegradable fabric softening compositions. Such materials therefore provide perfumers with more options for perfume ingredients and more flexibility in formulation considerations. These and other advantages of the present invention will be seen from the disclosures hereinafter.